Using volatility estimation as the underlying commonality, this thesis traverses the statistical problem of robust estimation of scale, through to the financial problem of valuing call options over stock.We use a large simulation study of robust scale estimators to benchmark a non-parametric...

This paper argues that typical applications of panel unit root tests should take possible nonstationarity in the volatility process of the innovations of the panel time series into account. Nonstationarity volatility arises for instance when there are structural breaks in the innovation...

GARCH Models have become a workhouse in volatility forecasting of financial and monetary market time series. In this article, we assess the small sample properties in estimation and the performance in volatility forecasting of four competing distribution free methods, including quasi-maximum...

Testing procedures for predictive regressions with lagged autoregressive variables imply a suboptimal inference in presence of small violations of ideal assumptions. We propose a novel testing framework resistant to such violations, which is consistent with nearly integrated regressors and...